Three Chinese airlines formed a regional alliance with a Taiwan carrier Thursday in a further sign of thawing relations between the two sides on the Taiwan Strait.
The agreement was signed between the Chinese carriers China Eastern, China Southern and Xiamen and Taiwan-based China Airlines.
Passengers who fly out on any one of these airlines would be allowed to switch their return flight to one of the other carriers, the four airlines said. The airlines would also allow travellers to accumulate frequent flyer miles from each other's flights and share business lounges and priority boarding lines.
All four carriers are members of SkyTeam, a global alliance. The four airlines together offer more than 270 direct flights between Taiwan and China each week, they said.
Taiwan, a self-governing island, split from China in 1949 after a civil war, and frosty relations prevented any direct flights across the Taiwan Strait until 2003. In December, the two sides signed an agreement to allow 616 direct flights per week as part of Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's detente towards Beijing.